With every passing day, SEO professionals need to revamp their marketing strategies. The competition existing online becomes tougher with time. New challenges arise annually that will endanger your website’s position on search engine result pages. Now you don’t want to appear on Google’s second page, do you? The year 2021 requires you to observe your SEO strategy from the customer’s perspective. So, here are some tricks you can apply to upgrade your domain’s digital status.
BEST SEO TRENDS FOR 2021
Enhance a user’s page experience:
How quick is your page to load? Is there any readable and informative stuff available on your site? Is your website easy to explore? Leading SEO consulting services suggests that these factors will still decrease your bounce rate in 2021 and make your website more popular among consumers. You need to write high-quality content for your visitors to read. This content must consist of short paragraphs with multiple headings and Italicized questions. Don’t use the passive voice but use bullet points to share data. Don’t forget to add some good images.
Understand The User Intent:
Google’s algorithm is getting smarter, and you can’t manipulate it merely with keyword-focused content. You need to understand the context in which these keywords are being searched for by users. Search engines’ objective now is to understand this “user intent.” So, you can’t expect to attract your target audience by making “artificial intelligence” your keyphrase. Many users may be searching for that Spielberg movie with these keywords. That’s why you need to create/update your buyer avatars or customer personas. But that doesn’t mean keywords will cease to matter this year. You can still use online tools such as Moz and SEMrush for keyword research and exploration.
Publish High-Quality Content:
We’re already talked briefly about how to publish high-quality content. Let’s further discuss this aspect of your SEO strategy. It would be best if you had backlinks to your website for gaining authority in SERPs (we’ll discuss backlinks soon). Contrary to a popular misconception, longer content does gain more backlinks. Since 2020 saw blogs being 2,000-worded, you need to produce 2,500-3,000 words long posts in 2021. But, of course, writing extensive content isn’t possible for everyone. You can visit the link https://fivechannels.com/destin-seo-digital-marketing-agency/, and explore how a professional marketing team handles the SEO services for you. Just remember these fine points:
- Longer posts are read more, ranked higher, and shared massively
- You need to link to relevant and trustworthy websites as your sources
- Follow Google’s E-A-T principle by creating expert, authoritative and trustworthy content
Collect High-Quality Backlinks:
Hyperlinks will still matter in this decade and be a crucial component of search engine optimization. But try to collect high-quality backlinks from high DA websites. Links from spammy websites will make yours look suspicious and untrustworthy. But creating a diverse backlink portfolio so, of course, links from smaller sites will suffice too. So, don’t hasten to disavow every hyperlink. Make your content powerful enough to be noticed by older and more authoritative websites via:
- Writing as a guest blogger
- Publishing unique findings on your site
- Influencer marketing and reaching out to directories
Embrace Video Advertising:
Customers are no longer enticed solely by text-based promotional content. But video content can grab their attention with visual advertisements that are more amusing and easily understandable. 85% of businesses have already embraced video marketing. More than 90% of marketers denote video marketing as an essential component of their promotional strategies. Internet users have shown an increased interest in short clips that are a few minutes long. You can also dive into the ocean of captured ads by creating an engaging thumbnail with captions/subtitles to accompany the illustrated content. Don’t forget to invest in paid ads to generate more traffic for the video.
Read Positive/Negative Reviews:
Search engines have grown conscious regarding the public perception of your brand. You must maintain a positive image of the business if you wish to see your name in Google’s top-ranking list. Statistics show that half of your consumers will leave behind some feedback. However, negative reviews matter because 85% of customers check for them before making a purchase decision. Moreover, many internet users tend to read the first ten reviews. So, here’s your motivation to get into the customer’s shoes and imitate their actions. Found a disgruntled opinion online? Try to communicate with the displeased by offering a refund and making them feel heard.
Local Searches Do Matter:
Doubtlessly, the internet is a global phenomenon. But most people use it to find localized services. If you own a restaurant, you need to focus on people who are searching for decent meals in their vicinity. Local SEO and listings will not cease evolving in 2021. Some 46% of all Google searches came from local queries back in 2019. So, don’t neglect to update your number, address, and opening hours for these folks. Since more than 70% of local searches end up with people showing up on their neighborhood store. You can always update your local SEO info on Google MyBusiness. Moreover, create and optimize landing pages for localized queries.
Focus On Image Optimization:
Experts believed that the image recognition market would reach $25 billion by 2019. And this industry keeps growing even in 2021, as 20% of Google’s search results contain images. We know that the human brain can better identify images (within 13 milliseconds) and is more receptive to visual information. That’s why you need optimized photos on your website. Pick relevant and high-quality images that won’t incur copyright claims. Add alt text to make images crawler-accessible.
Optimize For Voice Search:
One-fourth of American adults owned a smart speaker in the past. Around 2022, this number will hit 55%, and that’s why you need to pay more attention to voice search optimization. Learn that 40% of adults utilize voice search daily. Voice queries on Google are different from text-based searches. They tend to be more localized than globalized, like typical search engine queries. Consider spoken keywords rather than written ones. So, use natural-sounding phrases for voice SEO.
Optimize For Mobile Users:
In the end, let’s talk about the most crucial factor in your SEO-based marketing approach. You may have heard how Google introduced mobile-first indexing in 2019. It means that search engines primarily focus on the smartphone-optimized version of your website now. And pray what compelled Google to make such a decision? Well, by 2025, some 75% of digital users will be surfing the internet with their smartphones only. It means that you must design your site to be easily accessible with a phone. Google will use this mobile version of your website to crawl and index it. If you have a poorly-constructed mobile version, your search engine rankings will decline.
Conclusion
It’s January again and the time to face some harsh facts. If you don’t rank on Google’s first-page results for your target keywords, your website performs poorly. Whatever goes on the second page becomes potentially invisible to 75% of internet users, HubSpot reveals. That’s why you need to enhance your digital visibility with advanced keywords and modified link-building tactics. Since the competition won’t get any easier, your SEO performance must be top-notch and carefully-structured.